Electricity Power Transmission

@Ghyda Said

Kenya and Ethiopia will builda a High Voltage Direct Current power line to share electricty. It will"promote sustainable and renewable power generation." I don't understand how that works. How does power transmissiom make energy "renewable?"



https://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pressrelease/2015/energymanagement/pr2015100050emen.htm&content[]=EM

@mrmhead Said

The renewable source (hydroelectricity) is being shared. And the DC transmission is more efficient that AC transmission.

So sharing/spreading/transmitting it doesn't "make it renewable", it helps sustain (offset cost) and promote the use of renewable energy. Otherwise the receiver would need to build more (coal-fired?) generators that are not renewable.

@Ghyda Said

So, Ethiopia must have some kind of renewable energy, like hydroelectric, wind, photovoltaic or geothermal.

According to Wikipedia, Ethiopia generates electricity from all of the above, but mostly they use hydroelectric and wind.

Then under biofuel is says, "The majority of Ethiopia's energy needs are met by biofuels ... for cooking," which means they have been cutting down the trees. They don't have an estimate of the amount energy from biofuels. I bet they must get fifty or a hundred times the energy from other sources.

The trees will grow back. That makes it renewable?

As of right now, they do export power. It seems like the perfect conservationist experiment, except maybe for the trees.

I wonder about the banks and the loans. Someday, will we read about Ethiopian refinancing, like maybe Greece.

@mrmhead Said


Trees can be considered renewable if they are managed correctly.